Mail Order Bride: Westward Dance (10 page)

“I never know what might be useful, so
I just jot down everything that appeals to me,” Tessa
said.

Seth recounted their adventure, telling
them about sitting around the campfire at night listening to the
herd and the wild animals. He and Dean had had to do their share
and had gotten a lesson in what a drive entailed. That was when
Dean had discovered that he would prefer to stay home on the ranch
and Seth had found that he wasn’t ready to go back home. The
endless miles seemed to call to him.

“This one day, Pa sent Dean and me up
into the mountains after a couple of calves that had gotten
separated from the herd,” Seth said. “It’s one of the places along
the trail where there are a lot of rock formations all along the
mountains. I was tracking one of the calves when I went around one
big rock and saw two little cougar cubs. They weren’t very old. I
think that their eyes had just opened and they didn’t move very
fast.”

Tessa said, “What did they look
like?”

Seth said, “They were tan with dark
spots all over their little fuzzy bodies. They mewed and growled. I
think they were waiting for their mama to come feed them. Me being
me, I just had to go play with them. At first, they hissed at me
and tried to get away but they were just too little. I picked one
up and pet it and then did the same with the other one. They
started purring and rubbing my hands and I was having a blast with
them.”

Maddie pictured the little cubs and how
cute they must have been. She tried to imagine what Seth had looked
like as a teenager. He must have had many girls interested in him.
Maddie enjoyed watching him talk. His face was expressive and his
eyes smiled when he did. His large hands were surprisingly
graceful. She could have watched him all day and not been
bored.

“So I’m playing with them and I hear
this growl behind me. I knew it was their mother and that I was up
the creek without a paddle. I didn’t have a gun. Dean had one,
though. I’m standing there trying to come up with a way to get out
of there without getting hurt or wetting my pants,” Seth said with
a chuckle.

Maddie smiled. “I think I would have in
that situation. I’ve never faced down such a fierce animal and I
don’t think I want to.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t fun at the time,” he
agreed.

Tessa urged him to continue. “What did
you do?”

“I slowly turned around to face her but
kept my eyes averted. If you look them in the eye, they take it as
a threat. Then I heard Dean from somewhere above me. He told me to
stay still. I told him not to kill her because she had cubs. He
couldn’t believe I’d said that, but he did what I
asked.”

“But surely with the situation so dire,
shooting her would have been the best option,” Maddie
said.

“Probably, but I’ve always had a soft
spot for animals, especially the ones who can’t help themselves,”
Seth said and picked up Trouble as he ran over to him. He’d been
playing with the kids, but was tired out now. Seth settled the dog
on his lap and continued.

“I picked up one of the cubs and held
it in front of me. His mama didn’t like that a bit and growled and
hissed at me. I started backing up, figuring that she wasn’t going
to come at me with her cub in danger.”

Maddie laughed. “You used a poor
defenseless baby cougar as a shield?”

“Neither of us had a better idea at the
time,” Seth said. “So I just kept backing up until I thought I was
far enough to make a run for it. I put the cub down and took off.
Dean fired a warning shot and she grabbed her baby and ran. I’ve
never gone without a gun since.”

“I can understand why,” Tessa said. “I
would have liked to have seen you doing that.”

Hoof beats sounded up the drive and
they turned to see who was arriving. Seth recognized Dr. Turner’s
horse. Jack and Sadie ran over to him. They were fond of the older
gentleman, especially because he showed them things about his
medical kit. Sadie in particular took great interest in medical
matters and Dr. Turner had taught her things that had come in handy
when there had been minor injuries.

“Hi, Doc,” Sadie said. “How are
you?”

“I’m good, young lady. And you?” Dr.
Turner said as he dismounted.

“I’m good. Are you here to see Uncle
Seth?” she asked.

Dr. Turner said, “I’m here to see all
of you, but yes, I’m checking up on my patient, too.”

“Can I look at your hacksaw again?”
Jack asked.

“No,” the doctor said. “You’ve seen it
enough and last time you looked at it, you tried to saw a limb off
a sapling and dulled the blade.”

Jack laughed. “It worked out good,
too.”

“Not for me. I had to send for a new
blade.”

“Sorry again about that,” Jack
said.

“Get out of here and let me do my
work,” Dr. Turner said good-naturedly.

He continued on his way until he
reached the small group under the tree. He noticed Maddie right
away and figured that most men did. He’d thought the same way when
he first met Tessa. It appeared that there was more than one
beautiful O’Connor woman in the family.

Tessa rose and gave the doctor a kiss
on the cheek. “Hello, A.J. It’s always good to see you. This is my
sister, Madelyn. Maddie for short.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Beauty
seems to run in your family, Tessa,” he said.

“Aren’t you sweet,” Maddie said. “It’s
a pleasure to meet you, too, doctor.”

“You have to watch him, Maddie. He’s as
big a flirt as Marcus when he wants something,” Tessa
teased.

“While I mean every word I said, I
could use a glass of lemonade or something cool,” Dr. Turner
said.

“See?” Tessa said with a smile to
Maddie. “We’ll be back.”

Maddie said, “Would you like more
lemonade, Seth?”

“No, thanks,” Seth said.

The women left and Dr. Turner said,
“How’re you feeling?”

“Like hell, I don’t mind telling you,”
Seth said. “This leg should have been healed more than it is by
now, right?”

Doc sighed and nodded. “I was afraid of
this.”

Seth steeled himself and said, “Is it
going to have to come off?”

“I hope not, but I can’t rule anything
out, Seth. I know there’s new technology and with some surgery it
might be healed, but we don’t have anything like that around here,”
Dr. Turner said.

Seth’s jaw worked as he tried to come
to terms with the reality of the situation. “So what do we do about
it?”

A.J. had known the family a long time
and seeing Seth hurt like this was deeply upsetting both on a
personal level and professionally. Not for the first time, he
wished that he had access to more modern means of practicing
medicine. “I’m not sure more time is the answer. If that leg looks
as bad as it did last week, then we’ve got to make a decision soon,
son.”

“I’ll save you the time of an exam and
tell you that it does, Doc,” Seth said.

“Damn,” Doc swore. “You need to go
somewhere and have surgery. Is Mr. O’Connor around?”

Seth’s brow puckered in confusion.
“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with it?”

Doc rolled his eyes. “You know, there
are times when you’re just not too bright. He’s a big deal in
Pittsburgh, right? Does a lot of business with people and so he
would probably be familiar with the hospitals there
and-“

“No,” Seth said quietly.
“No.”

Doc looked into Seth’s eyes. The
younger man wore a stubborn expression, one that meant that he was
not going to change his mind. Instead of intimidating Doc as it
would have many men, it made him angry. He got right down in Seth’s
face and said, “Young man, I delivered you. You were your parents’
second baby after your ma lost the first one and they were
overjoyed when you born healthy and hearty. Did you ever wonder why
your name is Seth? You’re named after Seth in the Bible. He was the
third born son of Adam and Eve and they were grateful that God had
given them another child after Cain killed Abel and Cain was made
to leave.”

As he spoke, he poked Seth’s chest for
emphasis. “After your pa passed on, I promised your ma that I would
always look out for you boys. So if I don’t do all I can to help
this leg heal and not have to cut it off, I will be going back on
that promise and A.J. Turner doesn’t ever, ever go back on a
promise. So I’m going to go talk to Mr. O’Connor and see what can
be done and if I have to put you on that train myself, I will. Now,
I hope you understand that I’m not going to stand for you talking
back to me. What would your mother think if she was
here?”

The mention of his mother made him
lower his eyes as shame stole over him. He could well imagine his
mother’s disapproval and if there was one thing in the world he
hadn’t been able to stand growing up was disappointing her in any
way.

“There was a baby before me?” Seth
asked. “I didn’t know. No one ever said anything about
it.”

“It hurt your mother too much and she
didn’t want it spoken of. I’m only telling you now because you need
to understand why I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do. You’re not going
to stop me because I swore an oath to Catherine. You got it?” Doc
said and stomped off.

Seth tried to grab the older man,
reached too far and lost his balance. He did a slow roll off the
chairs onto the blanket, landing with a jar. Trouble had jumped
clear and now ran around Seth, barking at him as if urging him to
get up.

Pain flared in his leg and burned all
the way down it, stealing his breath. “Crap! Trouble, go get
Marcus. Get Marcus.”

Trouble had learned names and this was
a game that Seth played with him often. Seth only hoped that
Trouble would carry out the command correctly.

The poodle tore off, first heading to
the house to see if Marcus was there. He found Tessa and Maddie in
the kitchen. He barked at them and turned several circles and then
ran out the door barking furiously as he made for the
barn.

The sisters looked at each other in
surprise.

“What was that all about,” Maddie asked
as she laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog do
that.”

Tessa’s expression was quizzical. “It
usually means that something is happening. He gets very excited
about things, but he doesn’t act that way over nothing. It usually
has to do with Seth.”

“Oh, my God! Seth!” Maddie was out the
door in swish of skirts as she ran down the lawn.

She saw that the chairs were empty and
ran harder. She found Seth lying on the blankets. She knelt down by
Seth and took his hand. “Are you all right?”

“Never better,” Seth croaked as he
squeezed her hand back. He felt a little better as he looked up
into her lovely face. “You’re as pretty as an angel,” he told
her.

Maddie blushed and said, “That’s the
pain talking.”

Seth shook his head and said, “Nope. I
mean it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful
woman.”

“Stop it. Even in pain you’re flirting
with me,” Maddie said.

“Yep. I can’t help it. I sent Trouble
to go get Marcus. I have no idea where Dean is,” Seth said. “I’d
sure like to kiss you sometime, Miss Madelyn,” he
blurted.

Maddie laughed. “How do you go from one
thing to another so quickly?”

“I don’t know. Jack’s the same way. We
get it from Ma,” Seth responded and his sight faded into
gray.

Trouble tore into the barn. He’d picked
up Marcus’ scent and was hot on the man’s trail. He skidded to a
stop and looked around. The dog knew Marcus was there, but the
trail stopped at the ladder leading into the hayloft. There were
rustling noises coming from the loft. Looking up, Trouble saw
Marcus and started barking for all he was worth.

Marcus heard the dog and looked down
over the edge of the loft. Trouble was turning circles and then
standing up, planting his front paws on the bottom rung of the
ladder.

“What’s the matter with you? I don’t
have time to play right now, Trouble. I’m busy,” Marcus
said.

Trouble didn’t let up. He became more
agitated and ran to the barn door and back again. Marcus had seen
the dog act that way about various things and knew that it usually
meant something was amiss.

“Oh boy,” he said and began climbing
down the ladder. He hit the barn floor and Trouble ran out the
door.

Marcus started after the dog and
followed him to the main house and down the lawn. He saw Seth lying
on the blanket Tessa and Maddie had been sitting on. Maddie and
Tessa were by his side trying to revive him.

“What happened?” Marcus said as he
neared them.

“I’m not sure,” Maddie said. “Trouble
came and was very upset so I followed him and found Seth like this.
He passed out from the pain.”

Marcus’ gray eyes held concern and
humor at the same time. “I’ll be right back.”

He ran up to the house and got a water
picture and filled it from the kitchen pump. He took it back down
to where Seth lay and began pouring it on his face. Seth sputtered
and came to life as the cold water hit him. Marcus kept
pouring.